#Reigate March 2016 weather summary

March in Reigate started and finished unsettled with Storm Jake (no impact locally) on 2 March and Storm Katie (moderate impact, see previous post) on 27-28 March. High pressure located to the north of the UK mid-month kept things more settled and mostly dry here.

Here’s a time-lapse video from Reigate of showers and a defined cold front passing through associated with Storm Jake on 2 March. Note the distinct drop in temperature as the cold front arrives (windows fog up) and then the change (veer) in wind direction as the front passes and skies clear. Spot the wind shear too during the cold front passage.

March was sunnier than average for Reigate with 118.6 hours of sunshine.

UK-wise the month was sunnier but wetter in the south, mostly due to heavy rain associated with a deep low on 9 March and Katie later in the month.

deep LOW brought most of March rain to the South

March was also slightly below average temperature in the south. The CET came out 0.1C above average for March at 5.8C.

cooler in the south

Wetter in the south

March sunnier than usual

Air pressure was lower across the south of Europe than the north during March, hence the drier conditions to the north.

average 500mb pressure March

Rainfall anomaly March

Average temp March

The Atlantic cool blob sea surface temperature anomaly continued to develop during March and this may have had some influence on moderating temperatures regionally.

Globally, March was the warmest ever recorded March by a considerable margin at over 1.29C above the long term average for the month.

March global temperature anomaly

March temperature anomalies

Whilst Europe was about average temperature, there were notably extreme temperatures across the Tropics, in particular Indonesia, parts of India and Australia, as well as tropical North and South America and parts of Africa.

This continues the trend of warming shown in the graph below. Note the correlation of anomalously warm years with El Nino events.

The current record breaking 2015-16 El Nino is fading fast and is forecast to be replaced by cooler than average Pacific equatorial sea surface temperatures known as a La Nina by the autumn. This might have implications for a more active Atlantic hurricane season.